When it comes to new technologies, consumers can be forgiven for thinking they have heard it all before. 3G, WAP, Iridium, WiMax; words that promised much, but still mean little. So is the latest flavour of the month — mobile TV — all that diff-erent? Jawahar Kanjilal certainly thinks so, and is on a mission to take broadcasters, agencies and brands along for the ride.
As Asia-Pacific director of Nokia's multimedia experiences division, it is Kanjilal's responsibility to spread the gospel of mobile TV far and wide. So far, at least, the omens are good. Successful trials have concluded in Europe and, in Asia-Pacific, pilots are running in Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Japan and Korea, unsurprisingly, are well ahead of the game, already rolling out commercial services, albeit on differing platforms to the open standard DVB-H system that Nokia and its mobile peers support. But Kanjilal is not ready to take anything for granted yet. A number of hurdles still lie in wait if mobile TV really is to reach the kind of critical mass that has eluded some of the other technologies already mentioned. Regulatory issues still need to be untangled and the spectrum licensed. Broadcast operators need to invest in infrastructure and determine revenue models. Perhaps most critically, TV channels and advertisers need to be persuaded of the medium's long-term viability.
Kanjilal's job, as he puts it, is to build this ecosystem of interdependent players. "We are taking more of a fiduciary role," he notes. "Unless you show opportunity across the chain, people may become myopic."
Accordingly, Kanjilal has taken his message to the Asian Broadcasting Union (ABU) and to pay-TV body Casbaa. The next phase, he points out, is to focus on the advertising community and the media agencies. "As the level of consumer activity increases, it is definitely going to become the new medium," he explains. "But that will involve not going in with the blinkers of a traditional business — senior management need to proactively engage in experimentation."
And if they do, of course, Kanjilal is quietly confident that the rewards will follow. Results from the European pilot studies demonstrate a clear demand by consumers for TV-on-the-go, as anyone who has ridden a Japanese subway train recently can confirm. Critically, mobile TV broadcasts are like normal TV transmission, via a receiver built into the handset. This means that consumers no longer have to wait to download content, as per the 3G model.
New prime times also emerge, at early morning, lunchtime and early evening. Sport remains a magnet, but consumer feedback reveals a desire for content adapted to shorter viewing times. Most heartening for mobile telcos, the consumer can interact with the content, which may yet mark a watershed in the development of 3G. "TV advertising today is a very passive medium — you broadcast and you don't know who is watching," says Kanjilal. "In this particular medium, there is an interactive element, which would lead to re-looking at TV advertising models, into a fusion of TV and internet models."
Kanjilal plays down any notion, though, that Nokia is making inroads into the content space, despite the mobile giant's obvious evolution from manufacturer to fully-fledged media player. "From a Nokia perspective, it's enabling the devices and the system side," he states. "For now, we'd like to stick to our knitting."
Not that there is anything passive about Nokia's involvement in the genre. Kanjilal expects more pilots in the second half of 2006, with Australia set to become the first country in the region to commercially license the DVB-H platform. "2007 will be the year of real fast-paced launches," asserts Kanjilal. "There is certainly something going to happen and there is a lead time of a year or so. But these opportunities will only come to a few."
Kanjilal sees the theme of opportunity as a recurring one throughout his eight-year stint at Nokia, which he joined in 1997 from Hutchison Telecom India. In 1998 he took charge for the world's first ringtone promo — an early indicator of his passion to "convert technological opportunities into business realities".
Since then, he has worked in imaging, digital services and entertainment, leading up to his current role, which emphasises the delivery of tangible business propositions to a range of industry players, including mobile operators, broadcasters, regulators and the content community. "At the end of the day, we're putting a human face to technology," he notes. "These are the initial days of a true convergence of entertainment, media and communications."
